Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Everyone in the Manor Was Cannon Fodder

Near midnight, the gates of Marquis Yong Chang Manor stood wide open. Lanterns hung on either side, blazing so brightly the entrance looked like daylight.

A night watchman passed by and paused at the threshold. Inside, the manor was a riot of motion—well-dressed guests hurrying back and forth—while the crying rose and fell like waves, loud enough to rattle the bones.

Gu Nan Xi hadn’t even opened her eyes when the sounds drilled straight into her skull: old funeral dirges, monks and priests chanting, men and women weeping all at once. The noise stirred a restless panic in her chest.

“Mother, where did Brother go? Grandfather is being sent off tomorrow—on a day this important, how can he still not be here?”

A child’s shrill chatter pecked at Gu Nan Xi’s temples until her head ached.

She forced her eyes open. White mourning drapes hung overhead, and a whole crowd in coarse mourning clothes filled her vision.

Right in front of her, a vivid, pretty girl kept pouting and craning her neck toward the doorway. That was her useless little daughter.

Gu Nan Xi let out a long, heavy sigh. In her last life, she had stayed up late grading her students’ papers until she died of overwork.

And in the blur of that death, she’d been bound to kind mother system and thrown into a book called “Merchant Girl’s Counterattack Record,” waking up as Marquis Yong Chang’s marchioness.

The Marchioness of Marquis Yong Chang had two sons and one daughter.

Her eldest, Su Xuan Ming, would spend both money and devotion on the female lead—a merchant girl—only to be used as a stepping stone and die miserably.

Her second, Su Yun Ting, was frail and sickly, yet he kept throwing himself into martial world. In the end, his treacherous master framed him, the female lead reported him, and the entire household was dragged into mass execution.

Her youngest, Su Yun Yan, was love-drunk and obsessed with emperor dismissing the harem for her. She would provoke noble consort tong, be locked away in the cold palace, and starve to death.

And kind mother system’s “mission” was to enrich these villain cannon fodder characters—give them fuller personalities—then march them right back onto the original plot.

Gu Nan Xi couldn’t even be bothered to feel angry. So her job was to patch up their loveless childhoods… and still lead the whole family to the Yellow Springs?

Fine. Die early, die late—it was all dying either way. She might as well lie flat and slack off before she died.

She shut her eyes again, ready to sleep.

“Host! Wake up! We’re at the key moment!” kind mother system shrieked in her mind. “Su Xuan Ming is about to bring the female lead to the mourning hall and make a scene. Get up and act!”

To marry the female lead smoothly, Su Xuan Ming planned to use Grandfather’s funeral as leverage—let the girl “see him off” and turn their engagement into a fact. He’d also get the bonus of parading her in front of everyone, building her name.

The original marchioness would refuse. She’d faint in anger on the spot. The female lead wouldn’t be allowed through the door, Su Xuan Ming’s reputation would collapse, he’d be expelled from the academy, and he’d come to hate his own mother to the bone.

“Stop sleeping! Wake up!”

Gu Nan Xi didn’t. She asked coolly in her mind, “Aren’t you kind mother system? Why don’t you change their fates?”

kind mother system answered as if it were obvious. “Dying for the female lead is the best ending. Better than watching her marry someone else and suffering a lifetime!”

Gu Nan Xi said, “Then what’s the point of you?”

“So that, in their limited lives, they can receive the motherly love they once lacked.”

Gu Nan Xi nearly laughed. Wasn’t that even crueler? Give them warmth, give them hope… then shove them into the blade anyway.

Well. cannon fodder needed cannon fodder awareness.

And wasn’t she, the matriarch of Marquis Yong Chang Manor, cannon fodder too?

She tilted her head and drifted off again. “Call me when it’s time for my entrance.”

kind mother system hadn’t even recovered when Su Yun Yan panicked first. “Mother, why are you sleeping again? If you don’t take charge, what are we supposed to do about the funeral?”

Gu Nan Xi sank deeper. The frantic shouting in her ears might as well have been a turtle reciting scripture. She refused to listen.

Su Yun Yan stamped her feet, nearly in tears.

“Madam, Minister Lin’s household has sent people.”

“Madam, there aren’t enough servants in the front courtyard to receive guests.”

“Madam, procurement says ingredients are more expensive today. The budget won’t cover it.”

Servants clustered around Su Yun Yan and tossed problem after problem at her, but behind her, Gu Nan Xi slept as if nothing in the world mattered.

Su Yun Yan watched the manor dissolve into chaos and felt her throat tighten. She wanted to find Grandmother for help, but when she searched the room, Grandmother was nowhere to be seen.

With no choice, she forced herself to take over. “If the front courtyard lacks hands, pull from the back! If the back isn’t enough, pull from the gatekeepers!”

The servants swarmed in, then swarmed away again.

Everything was noisy. Everything was loose. Nothing had rules.

Su Yun Yan felt eyes on her—amused, mocking, waiting for her to fail—and humiliation burned her cheeks.

At the back gate, Su Xuan Ming—the eldest young master—clasped a plainly dressed woman’s hand. A simple silver hairpin held her hair. Guilt twisted his expression.

“Jing Niang… today you have to enter through the back. But one day, I’ll carry you in with an eight-bearer bridal sedan.”

Jing Niang smiled gently. “Old Marquis Yong Chang cherished you. Now that he has passed, I only want to show filial devotion for your sake. If Madam insists on refusing, don’t clash with her because of me. Madam is only being a mother who loves her son.”

Su Xuan Ming’s mouth pulled tight. “In her heart, the position of Marchioness matters more than anything. When has she ever cared about me? Don’t worry. If the gatekeepers dare block us, I’ll force my way in!”

Jing Niang’s eyes filled with tears. She turned her face aside so he wouldn’t see. “I trust you.”

Su Xuan Ming’s arms itched to pull her close, to comfort her properly.

But time was tight. He had a battle to fight, and he couldn’t afford to be soft.

He gripped Jing Niang’s hand and strode toward the manor. Servants rushed past in frantic disorder.

And not a single person stepped out to stop him.

Su Xuan Ming frowned. His mother’s household steward was famously capable—she handled everything personally. The manor had never been this messy.

What had happened?

“Su-lang,” Jing Niang murmured.

He came back to himself and led her through the courtyards, from the back to the front, until they stood before Gu Nan Xi without a single obstruction.

“Mother,” Su Xuan Ming said stiffly, “Grandfather is being sent off tomorrow. Jing Niang also wants to walk him out, to show her sincerity.”

His tone sounded like he was asking permission, yet his spine was iron.

Under kind mother system’s furious urging, Gu Nan Xi finally opened her eyes.

“Hit him! Scold him!” kind mother system hissed. “That unfilial brat is forcing you in the mourning hall—this is rebellion!”

Around them, guests began to notice the standoff. Whispers spread.

“Isn’t that Jing Niang? The famous beauty from Li Family Herb Shop in the east of town?”

“That’s her. The Imperial Academy’s students all worship her. Who would’ve thought she’d set her sights on Su Xuan Ming?”

“What’s so strange? Men more powerful than Su Xuan Ming won’t marry her. Men who can marry her aren’t as powerful as Su Xuan Ming.”

“Still—she’s bold. She even pushed him into making a scene in the mourning hall.”

“She climbed over several brothers to become the head shopkeeper of Li Family Herb Shop. Of course she has methods.”

“The heir of Marquis Yong Chang Manor marrying a merchant girl… their face will be ground into the mud.”

“If I were the Marchioness, I’d rather have birthed a slab of char siu than him. I’d throw them both out.”